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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

DIY Tie-Dye Jeans

Printed denim is huge for fall. While floral patterned jeans are still on my fall shopping list, I thought I'd make some tie-dye jeans as well. I'll do an outfit post with them soon, but the weathers supposed to be hot this week, so more than likely it will be the week after.

What You'll Need.
A pair of old jeans, a medium-dark rinse is preferred.
Rubber bands.
Gloves.
Bleach.
Bucket.

Step One.
Soak the jeans in cold water, just long enough to get them thoroughly wet. Then ring the jeans out & dump the cold water.

Step Two.
Rubber band the jeans. This should be done randomly, so the effect isn't too uniform. If you want more dark spots, use more rubber bands, if you want them to be lighter, use less.

Step Three.
Create a bleach-water mixture. Mine was roughly 65% water and 45% beach, I didn't measure, just kind of eyeballed it. Then, using gloves, submerge pants into the water. I ended up putting a couple small, clean rocks on mine to keep the pants from floating. Let them soak, checking on them every once in a while until they have bleached to desired color. Mine took about 3 1/2 hours. More bleach will lighten them faster, but will be rougher on the fabric.

Step Four.
Safely dispose of bleach water, and rinse the jeans in cold water. Then wash the jeans, by themselves, and run through the dryer. And you're done! (Note: I'm going to wash my jeans alone a few times after this as well, to be on the safe side)